New Column: Romney’s Foreign Policy Choice

I have a new print column out today, about Mitt Romney’s foreign policy choice: will he be a realist in the manner of George H.W. Bush or a neoconservative idealist, in the manner of George W?

Speaking of which, and given the impending climax of the Iran nuclear negotiations, I think it’s very counterproductive–indeed, maddeningly stupid–for the U.N.’s Ban Ki Moon to travel to Iran next month for the Non-Aligned nations annual globaloney festival.

Normally, this wouldn’t matter. It’s nice that third world politicians can have a chance to travel to some lovely spot and trade corruption strategies, even though the “aligned” world–the US v USSR cold war feud–is 20 years gone. But the UN has imposed strict sanctions against Iran and the negotiating team that is attempting to move Iran toward compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is a UN team. This is one of those rarest of occasions, a moment when the UN might actually get something substantial done. This sort of relevance seems entirely alien to Ban. We need a united front right now to convince Iran that it is going to have to compromise here and Ban is doing the compromising by attending this stupid meeting.